Flagstaff Hill wins first top-tier flag as Morphett Vale falls short
FLAGSTAFF Hill can no longer be pigeonholed as a club that only wins junior Southern Football League premierships.
FLAGSTAFF Hill can no longer be pigeonholed as a club that only wins junior Southern Football League premierships.
Instead, the Falcons believe they can embark on an era of sustained senior success after claiming their first top-flight flag on Saturday, defeating Morphett Vale 7.11 (53) to 6.4 (40) in the grand final at Hickinbotham Oval.
“I said to the boys before they came out ‘we can’t change history but we can make some today’ and we’ve done that,” Flagstaff coach Rod Mitchell said.
“We’ve gone from our club where our status is a club that wins junior premierships and we’re now a club that wins senior premierships.
“I’m really proud of the whole group.
“This could be the start of something really special.”
The chance to play in a grand final was a long time coming for the Falcons, whose only previous appearance in a top-tier premiership decider was a loss to Plympton in 1987.
Their sole A-grade flag was in 1985 in division two.
Last year Flagstaff went 17-1 during the minor round but bowed out in the preliminary final, while in 2014 it fell at the semi-final stage.
Mitchell said the club had learnt from its near-misses of the past few seasons.
“We topped up our list with a couple of older heads, I think our game plan evolved ... and the group has matured.”
Flagstaff started Saturday’s game slowly, spending large chunks of the first quarter pinned in its defensive 50 and it was four points behind at quarter-time.
But defenders Sam Tharaldsen, Brad Kirk and Mitchell Fazekas held firm and stifled Morphett Vale’s forwards.
The Falcons lifted once they kicked a goal against the tide as Matthew Raitt started to create havoc in attack and their superior skills came to the fore.
Flagstaff led by 10 points at half-time and never relinquished the ascendancy despite the Emus making one last charge, closing to within five points at the last break.
“I thought we didn’t play very brave early,” Mitchell said.
“Once we went sideways and put the ball into space, you could see our leg speed was a bit better than Morphett Vale.”
Captain Michael Shearer won the JH Warren Medal for best on ground, Raitt finished with three majors, while Josh Albanese ended the game in a sling with a suspected cracked collarbone. Mitchell expected to keep most of the squad together next season.
But after the game, the club’s attention was focused squarely on the drought-breaking triumph.
“We’ll take the lid off tonight,” Mitchell said.
“You need to celebrate your success, especially when it’s 31 years since we’ve had one.”
THE BEST ON GROUND
MICHAEL Shearer’s smile after the Southern Football League grand final was almost as wide as the Vignerons premiership shield.
Not only had the hard-nosed midfielder captained Flagstaff Hill to its first top-tier flag but he did so alongside his brother, Andrew.
To top it off, Michael received the JH Warren Medal for best on ground in the Falcons’ 13-point grand final win over Morphett Vale on Saturday.
It was everything Michael could only dream would happen when he shunned other offers to join the Falcons in 2012 to play with Andrew after leaving SANFL club West Adelaide.
“Four or so years ago, I left Westies and could’ve gone and played for money but I was drawn to the culture of the club and wanted to play with my brother,” Michael says.
“He’s now a regular A-grader but wasn’t at the start, so that was hard.
“(Winning a premiership together) is just the best thing – that’s why I came here.”
Michael was superb in the Falcons’ biggest game in three decades.
He crashed packs when his team needed, tackled with ferocity and won a stack of key clearances to give Flagstaff an ascendancy in midfield.
“The (best on ground) medal could’ve gone to a few other boys.
“It’s just amazing obviously but you don’t really care about getting one of those medals, you just want to win. As soon as that siren went, it was just an awesome feeling.”
Michael, also a two-time Mail Medallist, expects the triumph will take a while to sink in. “I’m pretty ecstatic.
“It’s such a great moment for the whole club.”
THE RUNNERS-UP
MORPHETT Vale coach Gary Cameron says his team does not need to recruit “willy-nilly” over summer because its nucleus is strong enough to contend for the flag again next year.
The Emus went down by 13 points to Flagstaff Hill in the grand final at Hickinbotham Oval on Saturday and were the second-best side for much of the afternoon.
But Cameron pointed to his side finishing minor premier with a 16-2 record and being just five points down at three-quarter time as evidence it was not far away from premiership success.
“It’s always disappointing when you lose a grand final,” Cameron said. “If I sat down at the start of the season, I certainly didn’t think we’d finish on top of the ladder. We don’t need to recruit willy-nilly because we’ve got the nucleus of a good side.”
The game might have turned out differently if Morphett Vale made the most of its bright start.
Much of the first term was played in the Emus’ forward half as they found plenty of the ball and had repeat inside 50 entries, but they could not make it count on the scoreboard.
Morphett Vale’s four-point quarter-time lead was quickly erased once Flagstaff worked its way into the game.
“We did have a lot of control of the ball and we did have opportunities, we just didn’t make the most of them,” Cameron said.
“That’s just a learning curve for our group.”
Morphett Vale did not go away, clawing back to within five points at three-quarter time. It showed plenty of heart, tackling fiercely and running hard until the end, but ultimately lacked polish and execution.
THE PRE-GAME TALKING POINT
THE biggest mystery on the morning of the Southern Football League grand final surrounded the fitness and selection of Morphett Vale’s Liam Corrie.
All the talk in the lead-up to Saturday’s match suggested Corrie, who days earlier had won the Mail Medal as the league’s best and fairest, would be sidelined because of a knee injury.
But when the typed team sheets were submitted an hour before the first bounce, the star midfielder’s name was on there, freshly written in pen.
Corrie’s selection could not inspire Morphett Vale, which went down by 13 points to Flagstaff Hill.
The 24-year-old midfielder struggled to sprint, limped in patches and generally did not have a big influence despite some classy disposals.
Emus coach Gary Cameron said it was a difficult decision to pick Corrie, who trained with Richmond ahead of the 2011 season, but “when you’ve got a player of that quality who puts his hand up to go, you back him in”.
“We put him through a fitness test Saturday morning and I gave him right up until the death knock as to whether he’d be in or not,” Cameron said.
“I knew he wasn’t going to be 100 per cent but he’s a Mail Medallist and a big player in our club, and the players really love him.
“I always knew he’d give 100 per cent effort.
“He certainly wasn’t our best player on the ground but he wasn’t our worst player either.”
Asked if he would have made the same call in hindsight, Cameron did not waver.
“I thought Liam at 80 per cent might be better than someone else at 100 per cent – and I’ll live with that because I made that decision for the club and for the team.
“I certainly stick by my decision to play him.”
Corrie, who played for South Adelaide from 2009-10, auditioned for reality TV football show The Recruit before the season and spent round one in the reserves.
“I had a good talk to him about what’s required to be a senior footballer at Morphett Vale,” Cameron said.
“To his credit, he’s taken that on board and been absolutely fantastic.
“Winning the Mail Medal is a credit to what he’s achieved this year.
“He’s really starting to mature as a player and a person, which is fantastic for him and for the Morphett Vale Football Club.”
SCOREBOARD
Flagstaff Hill 7.11 (53) d Morphett Vale 6.4 (40)
GOALS – Flagstaff: Raitt 3, Vandermeer, Schorn 2.
Morphett Vale: Iljcesen 3; Loveridge, Byrne, N. Bayly.
JH WARREN MEDAL – Michael Shearer (Flagstaff Hill)